What are the boating rules on Lake Tapps?

Most of these rules exist for a hot Saturday afternoon in July, when the coves are full and every kind of boat is on the water at once. In a first summer on the lake, an evening of homework in May makes that afternoon a lot easier.

Before you drive: the card and the paperwork

Washington requires a Boater Education Card for most people who operate a motorboat with an engine of 15 horsepower or more. You earn it by passing an approved boating course and exam, many of which can be done online, and the card is issued through the Washington State Parks boating program. It doesn’t expire. Keep it on the boat.

The card follows the driver. If a visiting friend or your teenager takes the wheel, they need their own card, an exemption that fits their situation, or a card holder 16 or older aboard and supervising them directly. State law also sets minimum ages for running larger motorboats and personal watercraft. If a jet ski comes with the house you just bought, read the personal watercraft rules before your summer guests line up to ride it.

Registration is a separate step. Motorboats are generally registered through the Washington Department of Licensing, with numbers on the hull and a current decal. When a boat or a jet ski is included in a home sale, its title moves on its own paperwork, apart from the deed. Your escrow officer and the Department of Licensing can tell you how to handle it.

Two rulebooks for one lake

State law applies on Lake Tapps the way it applies on any Washington water. Life jackets, required safety gear, registration and the law against operating under the influence all come from the state, and the State Parks boating handbook is the clearest place to read them.

The local layer covers speed: where you have to drop to no wake near shore, docks, swimmers and launches, how fast you can go after sunset, and the general duty to keep your speed to what lets you stop safely. That layer lives in code, and the code is split because the shoreline is. Part of the lake sits inside the City of Bonney Lake and much of the rest is unincorporated Pierce County. You won’t notice the line from a boat. You will notice it when you go looking for the rules and find two websites.

I leave the numbers out on purpose. They are set in local code and can change, and a figure copied from an old article is worse than none. Each spring, read Pierce County’s watercraft code and the city’s boating page side by side. Where they seem to disagree, call and ask, and run at the slower reading until you hear back.

Slow water: shorelines, channels and dark

On most summer days, the rule that shapes your day is the no-wake zone near shore. Lake Tapps has a long, crooked shoreline, with coves, points and narrow passages between the islands and peninsulas that became neighborhoods. On a map those passages look like open water. Once you’re in one, with docks on both sides and kids on the ladders, it feels like a residential street. Drive it like one.

After sunset the lake changes again, and so does the limit. Paddleboards and kayaks nearly disappear on dark water, and unlit docks blend into the shoreline. Running lights are required from sunset to sunrise, so if the boat has spent the winter under a cover, test the lights in the driveway before the first evening cruise.

Early and late in the season, before the lake is fully up or once Cascade Water Alliance starts lowering it, the shoreline you learned in July can be shallower than you expect. Go slowly close in until you know it.

Who patrols the lake

Two agencies patrol Lake Tapps: the Bonney Lake Police Department’s marine unit and the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department. Either one can stop a boat for a wake violation or a safety check. The easiest stop to avoid is the one for missing equipment, so have everything aboard before you leave the dock.

• A wearable life jacket of the right size for every person aboard, somewhere people can reach it. Washington requires young children to wear theirs on smaller boats while underway.
• Your Boater Education Card and the boat’s registration.
• Whatever sound signal and fire extinguisher your boat’s size and type call for.
• Working running lights if there’s any chance you’ll be out past sunset.

Washington’s boating under the influence law applies here like anywhere else in the state, and the patrol enforces it. A designated driver for the boat is as reasonable as one for the car.

Launching without a dock

Plenty of people boat on Lake Tapps without owning shoreline, and plenty of waterfront owners trailer a second boat in. Where you can put in depends on where you live.

The City of Bonney Lake’s launch is at Allan Yorke Park. In recent seasons the city has limited it to Bonney Lake residents with an annual pass, so a buyer who lives outside city limits shouldn’t count on trailering in there. Hours, fees and eligibility are the city’s call and can change from year to year, so check before the season starts. If you’ll live outside city limits, ask Pierce County Parks and your neighborhood association which launches are open to you. Our Lake Life page covers Allan Yorke Park, Pierce County’s North Lake Tapps Park and what summer weekends look like at each.

Many neighborhoods around the lake have their own association parks with a launch, a swim area or moorage. Membership, guest rules and slip wait lists vary, so ask the association directly before you buy a boat to go with the house. My guide to the neighborhoods around Lake Tapps walks through which parts of the lake tend to have them.

One rule applies at every ramp. Washington asks boaters to clean, drain and dry any boat that has been on other water, to keep aquatic invasive species out of lakes like this one. Pull the weeds off the trailer and drain the bilge and any ballast before you launch.

Your wake lands on someone’s bulkhead

This is the part the code only partly covers. A wake keeps going long after you’ve passed. It rolls into docks, rocks boats against their lifts, and washes soil out from behind aging bulkheads. The people on the receiving end are your neighbors, and on this lake you’ll see them at the park all summer.

Wake boats running full ballast deserve the most care. Surf and wakeboard runs belong out in the widest open water, away from docks, with turns made well offshore. Come off plane well before the mouth of a cove. And if a swimmer or paddler is anywhere near, slow down first and work out the rest afterward.

Towing skiers, tubers and wakeboarders

Washington law and Pierce County code require an observer in the boat, in addition to the driver, whenever you’re towing someone. The observer’s only job is watching the rider. The driver watches the water ahead.

A few habits keep towing easy on a busy lake. Tow in open water with room on both sides, and hold a steady line with the traffic around you. Washington also requires the observer to show a bright red or orange flag whenever a rider is down in the water, so other boats know to give you space. When you circle back for a fallen rider, come in slowly on the driver’s side and shut the engine off before they reach the swim platform. Agree on hand signals before the first pull, since nobody hears anything over an engine.

A tube with several riders carries more load than it looks like, and a sharp turn at speed can throw people hard. The state boating handbook covers the rest of the towing rules, including life jackets for the person in the water.